To Kill a Mockingbird: An Essay
by soccerstar20
Summary: My TKM essay. Includes a thesis, introduction, conclusion, and three body paragraghs. Please don't steal.


Author's Notes: Whenever I start an essay, I always go onto the internet for inspiration, mostly because I failed to do any real work before the night the essay is due. However, it is to my dismay that a good essay is hard to find in a short amount of time, and for free. Not saying that this is necessarily a good essay. Sometimes a person just needs ideas.   
  
So here I am, posting my essay in order to help inspire others. Please do not steal. Meaning, do not copy and paste this, and finally turn it in. Instead use it as a structure for your own essay. For instance, use the ideas made in the thesis and built your own ideas onto it. Often, finding a thesis is the hardest part.   
  
Again, do not steal. In the end, if you decide to, I am sure your teacher will notice this essay is not your style or writing. Be warned, there are probably many grammar mistakes.   
  
Otherwise, enjoy.   
  
Important: I think it is a rule that says only stories can be posted on fanfiction.net, so, at the very beginning, it will be set in story form, and the actually essay will follow. Okay, hard to understand. Just read, and you'll get it.   
  
***  
  
A young teenager sat down for what must have been the fifteen time, and stared at her blank screen. Okay, so maybe it was not totally blank. There was an open program, Microsoft Word Processor, staring right back at her, but the page she was supposed to fill, was blank. Not a word in sight, not even the simplest of words, like a name, or maybe a title. Sighing, the girl looked at her computers clock, nine-thirty. Well, with less than thirteen hours before she was to turn in her 'To Kill a Mockingbird' essay, she had better get started.   
  
And she began to type:  
  
To Kill a Mockingbird: An Essay  
  
  
  
There are some reasoners who frequently confound innocence with the mere incapacity of guilt; but he that never saw, or heard, or thought of strong liquors, cannot be proposed as a pattern of sobriety.   
  
-- Dr. Johnson.   
  
  
  
Just because a man may not drink if he has never seen a bottle of beer, does not mean he would enjoy a sober life if he had the chance to spend his time drunk. Which man is greater, a man who can resist temptation, or a man who resists temptation solely because no temptation can be found? Innocence simply cannot replace virtues and morals. It requires no great understanding of the world, only the simple views of white and black-- good and evil. Caused by a sheltered life and lack of knowledge, innocence cannot be kept forever. Eventually, reality overcomes the childish views of innocence as awareness of the world grows. When innocence shatters, the level of morality decides what type of person he/she has become. In To Kill a Mocking Bird, a young girl named Jean Louise Finch--also known as Scout-- deals with life in a small, southern town during the Depression. When a black man --accused of raping a white woman-- goes to trial, Scout can no longer ignore the ugly truth of racism. In To Kill a Mocking Bird, by Harper Lee, Scout attains a higher morality when evil destroys her innocence.   
  
Scout's innocence is the prevailing characteristic in the beginning of the novel. In the beginning of the novel it is easy to see Scout's incorruptibility through her youthful actions. "But by the end of August our repertoire was vapid from countless reproductions, and it was then that Dill gave us the idea of making Boo Radley come out." (pg. 8, Lee) Scout, Jem and their friend Dill spent their summer carefree, immersing themselves in plays and childish games. Their only worries were what to do next, and Boo Radley, a neighbor who "dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch, that's why his hands were bloodstained." (13) The fact that Scout believed the stories showed how naive she was. She was partially this way, because she was young, but mostly because at the time, there was no evil to be corrupted by. Scout lived a sheltered life. "There was no hurry, for there was nowhere to go, nothing to buy and no money to buy it with, nothing to see outside the boundaries of Maycomb Country." (5) In the sleepy little town, nothing happens. Maycomb was a world of it's own, affected little by the 'outside world.' Even in her own home, Scout had protection. Scout had never been exposed to bigotry or social pressure at her home. So much, in fact, that Scout wore breeches instead of dresses like other girls. She did this without a care of what others thought, as long as her father, Atticus, did not mind. Atticus tried to teach his children understanding and sympathy, which becomes central themes in the story. A moral man, Atticus took on a case that set the peaceful town in an uproar. He decided to defend Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a white woman. From that point on, Scout's intimate world suddenly changes.   
  
Evil threatened Scout's innocence, ultimately destroying it. Scout finds her friendly neighbors suddenly turning against her, and hating her for her father's actions. "I don't see why we had to keep our heads anyway, that nobody I knew at school had to keep his head about anything." (104) Scout's first contact with evil was in the form of racism. She was constantly bombarded with racial slurs directed at her father from--it seems--everyone. Mrs. Dubose, an elderly lady, called out hateful names about Atticus to the children every time they pasted her house. "Your father is no better than the niggers and trash he works for!" (102) Scout saw her as cruel and evil. When Jem was forced to read to Mrs. Dubose everyday for a month, Scout believed it would be his death. "I could not understand how he could sit there in cold blood and read a newspaper when his only son stood an excellent chance of being murdered with a Confederate Army relic." (104) Her views were still that of an innocent, but not everything is so clear cut. "Mrs. Dubose was an morphine addict…Jem, when you are sick as she was, it's all right to take anything to make it easier, but it wasn't right for her. She meant to break herself of it before she died, and that is what she did." (111) After Mrs. Dubose died, Scout found out the lady was suffering from her sickness, yet she refused to use morphine. Even though Mrs. Dubose was racially prejudiced and hateful, Atticus considered her courageous. This mixture of good and evil does not fit into the separate black and white boxes Scout had. Scout's simplicity comes into full contact with evil the night Atticus guarded the jail house. Jem, Scout, and Dill went into town one night to make sure Atticus was safe. They saw him guarding Tom Robinson from a group of men. Scout--not realizing what was happening--ran to Atticus, only to find herself in a group of strangers. She recognized a man as one of her classmates' father. "Mr. Cunningham displayed no interest in his son, so I tackled his entailment once more in a last-ditch effort to make him feel at home." (154) While Scout talked to Mr. Cunningham, she was clueless to the danger of the situation. Scout only saw the good part of Mr. Cunningham, the man who had given them vegetables and fruits as payment, the honest man who would not take money from anyone. Luckily, her innocence worked to her advantage, and the men left. Only until they got home, did Scout realized what the group of men had come there to do--lynch Tom and hurt anyone who was in their way--like Atticus. She started to cry. The pivotal point in Scout's 'lose of innocence' was the Tom Robinson trial. Not only did she see the evil of racism from a small group of people, but from a whole town. "We got it," (178) Jem said over and over. The evidence piled up for Tom, clearly not guilty. However, any hope that the town could make up for their evilness vanished when the sentence was read. The sentence: guilty. " It was like watching Atticus walk into the street, raise a rifle to his shoulder and pull the trigger, but watching all the time knowing the gun was empty." (211) Scout compares the trial to the mad-dog incident. This showed understanding on her part. Scout knew Atticus was being extremely brave, because he knew the case would lose. Knowing the case would lose, Scout demonstrates her new understanding of the town. She distinguished the truth. The trial was based on racist facts; a black man cannot feel sorry for a white women. Most of the town was racist. This awareness illustrates her new-found views, and her lose of innocence. She can no longer ignore reality.  
  
Scout's perception on life and morality developed into something closer to an adults'. Without her innocence, Scout gained a sense of responsibility. During one of Aunt Alexander's missionary meetings, Scout, Miss Maudie and Aunt Alexander received news inside the kitchen from Atticus that Tom had been killed. Atticus leaves with Calpurnia to tell Helen Robinson to devastation news. Outside the kitchen door the three ladies can hear the laughter of the hypocrite society women. "After all, if Aunty could be a lady at a time like this, so could I." (237) After Tom's death, no one wanted to go back into the circle of ladies where they would hear how horrible blacks in Maycomb are while they crooned our poor blacks in Africa. But they do, they go back in and act polite. It is the curse of being a southern women. Scout, seeing the strength in Miss Maudie and her Aunt, followed them back into the room. She helped serve and make conversation, despite the cheerless mood she is in. By going into the world of ladies, Scout is being selfless, unlike a child would be. She showed she was willing to put others' needs in front of her own. Towards the end of the novel, Scout has one last spurt of growth. After Bob Ewell attacked Scout and Jem, Scout takes her savor home, Boo--Arthur-- Radley. "Atticus was right. One time he said you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them. Just standing on the Radley porch was enough." (279) Boo Radley The Phantom was no more. He was now Mr. Arthur Radley, the man who saved the Finch children's lives. Scout was no longer afraid of him, having seen many evil things in this world. She realized that Arthur was a human being, and was always there for her. He was secretly protecting her all along with his love. "Autumn again, and Boo's children needed him." (279) Although Scout had seen enormous evil, she had also seen enormous good in Radley. Her faith in people remained. "When they finally saw him, why he hadn't done any of those things…Atticus, he was real nice…." (281) By walking in the shoes of another and truly understanding them, Scout had made her biggest jump ever towards adult morality. "I thought Jem and I would get grown but there wasn't much else for us to learn, except possibly algebra." (279) Scout and Jem will get older and learn more about the world, but in terms of morality and understanding, they have the mentality of an adult, maybe even more. There were many lessons and obstacles in past events, but Scout cleared them all successfully with a full heart.   
  
To Kill a Mockingbird is a story of growing up. It follows the progress of an innocent six year old. Through her trials with evil, Scout was able to come out a better person.   
  
The reader gets the pleasure of watching her grow into something we all strive to be, compassionate, understanding, and moral.   
  
More author's notes: I picked to write an essay about Scout, because, well…It was easy to extend upon. Also, I love Scout. She's so cool. As you can tell the end is lacking. This was around the time when I was getting really tired.   
  
Anyway, thanks for reading. I hope you thought it was okay. Please comment (review), although I already turned it in a long time ago. 


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